Former captain Sunil Gavaskar on Monday lashed out at chief coach Duncan Fletcher and called for his immediate, ouster while suggesting the name of Rahul Dravid as the next coach of the Indian cricket team.
"For me, Duncan Fletcher would get 1.5 in a scale of 10 as far as his success is concerned. I believe a younger guy should be appointed as the coach of the Indian team," Gavaskar said.
"Rahul Dravid is one man who is enormously respected and is a successful captain having won series in West Indies and England. When he speaks, the Indian players, some of whom are superstars, listen to him as they know how much preparation went into his game," he told a TV channel.
He was very scathing while talking about Fletcher's role as the chief coach since his appointment post 2011 World Cup win, which has seen the performance of the Indian team go down abysmally.
"I know it's only 11 months for the World Cup and people don't want to tinker with support staff. But had it been the staff of 2011 (Gary Kirsten, Paddy Upton and Eric Simons), I would have agreed. But what has Fletcher done? He has done nothing. His achievements as a cricketer wasn't anything incredible. He was an ECB reject. The ECB dispensed with his services," a livid Gavaskar said.
"A coach has to be somebody who is in touch with the modern game and takes the team forward. If Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh -- all stalwarts of Indian cricket -- can be dropped on poor form then why not drop support staff for poor performance.
"Fletcher never had credentials of Gary Kirsten or John Wright, who were achievers in international cricket."
Gavaskar spoke about how Indian teams over the years got major success under former India players.
"Look what we did after the 2007 World Cup disaster. Ravi Shastri (Bangladesh), Chandu Borde (England), Lalchand Rajput (World T20 in South Africa), Chetan Chauhan (manager in Australia) were there with the teams. We had an incredible year," Gavaskar said. --PTI
When (Dravid) he speaks, the Indian players, some of whom are superstars, listen to him as they know how much preparation went into his game
--Sunil Gavaskar
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